Apparatus for lacing yarn masses by string



April 1969 SHIGERU HAYASHI 3,435,495

APPARATUS FOR LACING YARN MASSES BY STRING Filed Dec. 28, 1967 DA /7 6L 4 i! B a United States Patent 3,435,495 APPARATUS FOR LACING YARN MASSES BY STRING Shigeru Hayashi, Fuji-shi, Japan, assignor to Asahi Kasei Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, Japan, a corporation of Japan Filed Dec. 28, 1967, Ser. No. 694,292 Claims priority, application Japan, Dec. 30, 1966, 41/85,906 Int. Cl. B6511 55/00 U.S. C]. 28-21 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE by the labor heretofore required in such operations can be eliminated completely.

The present invention relates to improvements in the apparatus for lacing a yarn mass or skein by a string, disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,323,189 to the present applicant, and more particulraly relates to a device for mechanically interconnecting said apparatus with the skein reel of a reeling machine associated therewith so that said apparatus and said skein reel may be operated automatically in timed relation, whereby the labor heretofore required in the lacing operation by the use of said apparatus can be reduced drastically.

In lacing a yarn mass on the skein reel of a reeling machine by a string, it is customary to lace the yarn mass at two or three places. With a conventional reeling machine, when the lacing operation has been completed at one place of a yarn mass, the portion of the yarn mass to be laced next can be located in the position where the lacing operation is effected, only by rotating the skein reel by hand. Therefore, even when an automatic lacing apparatus, such as the one disclosed in the aforementioned U.S. patent, is used, it has been necessary to lift said apparatus to a level at which it will not interfere with the rotation of the skein reel and thereafter rotate the skein reel manually to bring the portion of the yarn mass to be laced next into the position of lacing operation, at each time lacing at one place of the yarn mass has been completed, and thus much labor has been required for such manual operations. In this view, it will be obvious that use of a device which enables such manual operations to be carried out mechanically automatically, would be quite effective in reducing the labor heretofore required in the lacing operation by the use of the automatic lacing apparatus according to the aforementioned U.S. patent, or any other lacing apparatus.

'It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a device which is capable of completely eliminating the manual operation which would otherwise be required for rotating the skein reel of a reeling machine to locate the portions to be laced of a yarn mass in the position of lacing operation one after another.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for the apparatus for lacing a yarn mass or skein by a string, disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 3,323,189, by which, upon completion of the lacing operation at one 3,435,495 Patented Apr. 1, 1969 one place of the yarn mass, said apparatus is lifted automatically to a level at which it will not interfere with the rotation of the skein reel on which said yarn mass is formed, so as to provide for locating the portion of the yarn mass to be laced next in the position where the lacing operation takes place.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description with reference to an embodiment of the invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view showing schematically a reeling machine and an automatic lacing apparatus, provided with the device of this invention, and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front view showing the relative position of a rack and a pinion in the device of this invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a set of an automatic lacing apparatus and a reeling machine, provided with the device of this invention, which are in a position just after completion of lacing operation on one place of a skein. A pinion 8 is loosely mounted on an end extremity of a rotary shaft 111 through a ratchet mechanism to cause rotation of said rotary shaft in one direction only. The rotary shaft 11 is journalled through bearings 12, 12 and provided at the other end extremity with a bevel gear 13 which is in engagement with a bevel gear 13 mounted on the shaft 15 supporting the skein reel. A rack 6 is disposed in a guide member 7 and moved therein vertically reciprocally by a chain 4 for intermittent engagement with the pinion 8. The automatic lacing apparatus 1 according to U.S. Paent No. 3,323,189 is mounted on a rail member 2 and carried thereon up and down by the chain 4, with the rail member 2 sliding in a pair of guide grooves 3 formed in a frame 16. The chain 4 is engaged around a sprocket 5 and has one end connected to the rail member 2 carrying the lacing apparatus 1 and the other end to a winding roller (10* which is fixedly mounted on the top end of the drive shaft 9 of a prime mover. The relative position of the rack 6 to the pinion 8 is shown in FIG. 2.

In operation, when the chain winding roller 10' is driven by the prime mover in the direction of the solid line arrow or in a counterclockwise direction, the chain 4 is taken up on said winding roller 10. Therefore, the rack 6 in the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is moved downwardly and the lacing apparatus 1 is pulled upwardly, with the rail member 2 sliding in the guide grooves 3, by the chain 4. When the rack 6 reaches a point just before it engages the pinion 8, the rail member 2 and accordingly the lacingapparatus 1 is positioned at a level at which said lacing apparatus will not interfere with the rotation of a skein reel 14. As the rack 6 moves further downwardly, the pinion is rotated by the rack 6 and the rotation of the pinion 8 is transmitted to the skein reel 14 through the rachet mechanism, rotary shaft 11 and the bevel gears 13 and 13", causing said skein reel to rotate. At the position of the rack 6- which has just been disengaged from the pinion 8, the portion to be laced next of the skein on the skein reel 14 is located in the position of lacing operation. Then, the rotation of the drive shaft 9 is stopped, so that the winding roller I10 stops winding the chain 4 thereon.

Thereafter, the drive shaft 9 is driven in an opposite direction or in a clockwise direction as indicated by the broken line arrow in FIG. 1, whereby the chain 4 is unwound from the winding roller. The lacing apparatus 1 is allowed to move downwardly by its weight and the weight of the rail member 2, and the rack 6 is carried upwardly by the chain 4. During the upward movement of the rack 6, it is again brought into engagement with the pinion 8 rotating the same. In this case, however, the rotary shaft 11 is not rotated by the pinion 8 due to the idling of the ratchet mechanism provided therebetween, so that the skein reel 14 is held stationary. The rotation of the drive shaft 9 is stopped when the rail member 2 carrying the lacing apparatus 1 has reached the lower ends of the guide grooves 3, with the lacing apparatus 1 positioned in the lacing position.

In this case, when the speed of rotation of the skein reel or the speed of rotation of the drive shaft is exclusively high, it is possible that the place to be laced of the skein is brought past the position in which the lacing operation takes place or, in other words, the skein reel overruns the lacing position, due to inertia. In order to avoid this, a bar 17 is fixed to the lower end of the rail member 2 to press the skein reel so as to locate the place to be laced of the skein in the lacing position during the downward movement of the lacing apparatus 1.

The angle through which the skein reel 14 is rotated is variable depending upon the number of places at which lacing of the skein is desired. Namely, the skein reel is rotated through an angle of 180 when the skein is to be laced at two places and 120 when the skein is to be laced at three places. The angle of rotation of the skein reel can be controlled by adjusting the period in which the pinion 8 is held in engagement with the rack 6.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for operatively interconnecting an apparatus for lacing a yarn mass or skein by a string and the skein reel on which said yarn mass or skein is formed, said device comprising a combination of means for lifting said lacing apparatus upwardly and means for rotating said skein reel in one direction only through a predetermined angle at each revolution in timed relation to the movement of said lacing apparatus; said first means including a rail member for carrying said lacing apparatus thereon and guide :grooves 'for slidably receiving said rail member; said second means including a rotary sharft operatively connected to the shaft of the skein reel, a pinion mounted on said rotary shaft through a ratchet mechanism and a rack adapted to engage said pinion to cause rotation of the same; and said rail member in said first means and said rack in said second means being connected with each other by a chain.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, in which said rail member is provided with means for adjusting the stopping position of the skein reel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,401,519 12/1921 Clauss 2'8--21 X 1,774,592 9/1930 Colman 28-21 1,811,120 6/1931 Gasda et a1. 28-21 LOUIS K. RIMRODT, Primary Examiner. 

